Diana Kennedy & José Andres.

At the National Archives 7:pm in DC. Sept 15, 2011.  I’d consider going but I don’t think I will. It’s free. (I can’t get a good link for the National Archives. It must be on the DNS level.)

They will be discussing the Cuisine of Mexico. I met Ms Kennedy this June while waiting for a plane back to Richmond at DFW.

Yo y la maestra.

PANCHITO (Formerly THE HOOK)

After weeks of watching the work go on in the rehabbing of this former Midlothian TPKE fried fish emporium into a taqueria, I noticed that it was OPENING SOON!

Nearest the camera, carne al pastor, then carnitas, then carne asada..

And it was called PANCHITO Restaurante Mejicano y Taqueria (Authentic)  (or something like that) and we decided to investigate this place on Saturday. We met at one PM (I got there first and was able to find a menu and got an agua gaseosa (mineral water). We only wanted a snack, so rather than getting full plates, I decided that we should split three sopes (thick corn tortillas with a rim/edge) and chose carnitas (fried pork bits), carne al pastor (marinated pork), and carne asada (grilled beef).

After our order was placed, my brain was picked re: local ethnic grocery stores, educational background, and common acquaintances.

Our order arrived and we fell to with some salsa verde of moderate picante added to our meal. Everything tasted authentic and was approved of. The toppings were a trifle dry, but we couldn’t really see ordering fully sauced dishes at that time of the day, since we had other things to accomplish before the day was out.  I want to come back and try some of the platters; I think they had chicharron en salsa verde. I may go back by and pick up a menu.

It also seemed on the pricey side.. I would have expected the platters to be at least a dollar or so less.

PANCHITO is open most days from 10 AM to 10 PM.. Fridays & Saturdays from 10  AM to 4 AM. It could prove to be too interesting a place to visit in the early morning hours since it is right next to several transient motels. You young folks can live large, but I’ll pass.

Panchito Taqueria

And one should note that the formica booths are not for large folks.

the charm of formica and the transient motel..

End of Two weeks in Kansas City.

Well, the high point turned out to be during the 4.5 hour layover in DFW where I got to meet one of my culinary heroes. I was at a gate in the D concourse where my Richmond flight was to leave after a flight to Mexico City left. It turned out the flight to Mexico City was delayed and an elderly lady sat down across from me. I noticed that DSK was inscribed upon her rolling duffle and she looked familiar. I went over to her and said:

“Pardon me, are you Diana Kennedy?”

She said she indeed was Diana Kennedy and we had about a 10 minute chat where I told her that I had most of her cookbooks and had really appreciated her work. She told me that she’s working with a couple of ethnobotanists on a huge volume on chiles and that she and José Andrés are planning to do a presentation at the Kennedy Center on the Deiz y Seis de Septiembre.

I asked if I could take a photo of her and she said “Get someone to take one of the both of us!” So here it is..

Una encuentra con la maestra!

After this, I had to check the departure screen and had to hoof it to concourse C.  I heard some guys saying that they’d seen Roger Staubach in the concourse.

Roger who?

~~~~~

The two weeks in KC were quite good, BTW.  I saw my wife,  and my son and his wife (for a few days on their way back to Toronto) and my mother-in-law, who had arrived Tuesday from Oregon.

We ate asian dumplings at BLUE KOI

Pork dumplings at BLUE KOI (we ate there three times!)

Great mezze at LITTLE EGYPT (sorry, no photo but here’s one of the Farmer’s Market which opens at 5:30AM. These guys aren’t “hobby farmers“! No sir!)

Kohlrabi

Samosas, kebabs, & rooh afza (a chilled & delicious pink rosewater & milk drink) at CHAI SHAI

Lamb kebab & rooh afza (we ate at Chai Shai twice)

and I made the rounds of various taquerias getting a fix of serious Mexican food which is not to common around here, except at LA MILPA

La Guacamalera (they make guacamole at your table in some places)

And several BOULEVARD ales were quaffed. BTW, BOULEVARD has joined up with DESCHUTES brewery from Bend, Oregon and they will be in the KC area in a few months. Be still my heart.

Eat More Goat..

Good stuff here. Back in Texas, I used to cook goats for get-togethers. I cooked a halal goat leg from Petra Market along with two shoulder clods from Belmont Butchery last year for my son’s wedding in Nelson County. Here’s a photo of the goat leg.

Anointed goat leg.

At the wedding, there were Cypriots, Mexicans, Ecuadoreans and at least one Spaniard. They were amazed at how tender the goat was. Halal goats tend to be happy (tender) goats. I draw the line at cooking anxious goats and goats that have been hassled prior to the time of their demise.

From the Bay Area food blog THE ETHICUREAN:

Goat meat is already very popular around the world – the Washington Post claims that goat makes up almost 70 percent of the red meat eaten globally – and its popularity could increase in the U.S. because of the convergence of several things:  renewed interest in grass-fed animals; openings of new butcher shops or revitalization of old shops (such as Avedano’s in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights), and increasing numbers of U.S. residents from Latin America and South Asia. With a bit of education and experimentation by farmers, butchers, chefs and home cooks, this adaptable animal could become a key part of a return to meat raised on pastures.

http://www.ethicurean.com/2011/06/12/goats/

THE ETHICUREAN is a good, non-fluffy, food blog.

 

Texas Pork

Some old amigos of mine back in Texas dispatched a pig this weekend and it’s now secure in the freezer! Que amable, gueyes!

Los vatos con un chancho bien fria!

More of La Milpa

Here you are. Looks quite nice.  I combined this with a trip to Taj Mahal to get some tea for my lady-wyfe in KCMO. Nearly went over to Jerusalem to see what they might have in the way of halal lamb to grill, but I went on home.

La Milpa without the cook tent.

La Milpa gets a makeover!!

I have been meaning to document this for at least a month. They’ve redone the stucco in a sky blue with embellishments. Quite handsome, I’d say. I’ll go by and take some more photos when the dining/cooking tent is down.

Note the blue finish.

Nice facade.

Whoever did this did a nice job. Reminds me of home in South Texas.

Facing Hull Street

Noth entry with corn motif

This is nicer than in a lot of the toffee nosed places downtown. Seguro que hell yes!

South entry with Quetzalcoatl motif

Flower beds

Para flores

The banner.. which says

outdoor carnitas/they are here/enjoy them!

Note the happy cartoon chanchito!

carnitas!

I got a carnita taco and is was as good as always. There were three fine salsas to go with this..

Mr Impolitic Eye needs to quit eatin’ at the hifalutin places. I nearly took a photo of the tripitas (chitlins), but I left my camera in the truck when I sat down to eat my taco.

Chorizo con cebollas!

Chorizo and onions..

Chile, last week.

I cut up a small boneless pork roast into small pieces and sautéed the pieces in a bit of canola oil. I then added 3 crushed garlic cloves, 1.5 cups of chopped yellow onion and cooked those till they were translucent..

Molcajete in the kitchen!!

I took a La Costeña canned chipotle (with a good bit of adobo) and ground it up in my lava rock molcajete with a teaspoon of whole comino and added this to the chile pot along with 4 chopped Roma tomatoes and a tablespoon of sweet New Mexico ground chile (CHILE HILL brand). I then added 2 teaspoons of Mexican oregano,  some epazote and a couple of bay leaves.  With some chicken stock & beer to cover,  I  let this simmer for a couple of hours.

Muy sabroso! Over rice with frijoles bayos on the side.

Oregon in February: Tacos y NWPA

I was out that way, attending the annual SEASONAL AFFECTIVE DISORDER FESTIVAL in Boring, Oregon last weekend. Not much happened there, but I did have the best tacos al pastor that I have ever had at the El Jaliscense taco truck near the Boring Fire Station.

I had the best tacos al pastor here...

Tacos tend to be no more than $1.50 out there. I find it difficult to pay the Richmond going rate for tacos of $2.50. They guys who charge this must be freakin’ chilangos. “y TAKOS! No me dijé..“

I also brought carne adobado tacos to my mother-in-law’s so we’d have a quick lunch. These were from a neighborhood taqueria called TACOS DEL SUR.
They were great, with radishes and 5 types of salsa available.

I like to get lunch for three people for under ten bucks!!

I went by the neon salmon, but bought nothing. I was going to make some clam chowder, but decided not to.

Hail the neon salmon!

And Deschutes Brewery has a great new Pale Ale. NWPA Red Chair. But oh, this is wonderful stuff.

Some of the best beer I have ever tasted in my life!

Spelling TACO with a “que?”

The letter K! is seldom used.  Taco is hardly a loanword…

Spanish uses the Latin alphabet like most European languages, but the letter K is used only in a handful of loanwords to represent the sound usually written as C or QU.

From
http://download.travlang.com/Ergane/spanish.htm